[Survey] Your Favorite Commercial PnC Adventure Games

[BlackDragon1200]

Hi. I'm hoping to conduct a small survey for a project i am working on. If you're interested in helping out all you need to do is list your top 3 favorite commercial adventure games in order of preference.

For example mine would be:

1. The Curse of Money Island
2. The Longest Journey
3. Grim Fandango

Also if you have the time, a comment about why these are your favorites would be great.

Thanks in advance!

[abstauber]

1. Secret of Monkey Island
2. Broken Sword 2
3. Colonels Bequest

I know, these are all really old titles, but they had the biggest impact on me. As of today I still like playing adventure games, but if I had to buy a game, that would properbly a retro game from here (like those from Wadget eye).
So no, I havent played Zak&Wiki nor have I tried Jack Keane  8)

edit:
Reasons for chosing this three games:
1+3) graphics+atmosphere+soundtrack: I still have the soundtracks in my head. Apart from the athmosphere, Colonels Bequest was incredibly hard and somehow unfair. but it was just so great, acting in the middle of an 20s crime novel. With intrigues murder and social relationships between the actors.

2) I'm not really sure, why I've chosen this. Maybe because I can remember it very well and have the feeling that it was entertaining.

[arj0n]

01. Day of the Tentacle (great way of art, like the rooms and the caracters & humor galore plus nice puzzles)
02. Monkey Island 1 (great caribbean-pirate feeling due to the soundtracks, also humor galore, and funny puzzles)
03. King's Quest 3 (nice midevil feeling, nice puzzle, challenging puzzles)

plus, I do like series of games... in stead of one part only.

[Tuomas]

1.The Secret of Monkey Island
2. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
3. The Big Red Adventure

I just never could enjoy any game as much as I did enjoy these. Except for MI2 whuch us close on 4th position.

[(deleted)]

(deleted)

[TwinMoon]

Wow, it's so hard narrowing it down. "Out of Order" was so great, but it's not a commercial title.

1. Gabriel Knight
2. Monkey Island 1
3. Sam & Max hit the Road

1) I bow to the genius that is Jane Jensen. With a plot tighter than a new pair of jeans, the story is so good you'd almost forget about the great background art.

2) Adventure games + monkeys = instant greatness! Do I need to explain more? About the dieting cannibals? Herman Toothrot? Grog? Psychological swordfighting?
Of course not!

3) Even though the puzzles are difficult and illogical at times, it's still so wacky you gotta love it. Great animatons and did I mention: BEST INTRO EVER!

Barely losing the battle for third place: King's Quest 6 and Larry 6.

[Darth Mandarb]

1. Space Quest 3
This was one of the first adventure games I bought on my own and played all the way through without cheating.  The story wasn't overly amazing but the immersion was something that really made an impact on me.  One scene that really stands out for me is Fester Blatz's World 'O Wonders shop on Phleebhut that whole scene ... it was ... transporting to a young boy.  And the game had a brilliant usage of the EGA palette (which, in my opinion peaked around the time this game came out).

2. Loom
Such a cool and full world this game created!  I remember just being blow-away by how 'deep' the game felt to me.  The use of colors, the music, the originality all really appealed to me.  I was unable to complete the game without some help from a friend who had already beaten it, but still.  The same as with SQ3, the usage of the EGA palette was incredible (I did later play the VGA version/talkie but it lacked the magic to me that the EGA version had)

3. Full Throttle
Full talking with some 3D animation mixed in and bikers kickin' ass!  This game was, to me, way ahead of it's time and I played it over and over (with very little calls to the helpline - you kids might not realize this but the internet wasn't always there for us to use!)  It was the first very professional feeling game that felt more than PG rated to me.  I felt like I was playing an 'adult' game ... and I liked that.

[LimpingFish]

Since my adventure playing happened in two stages really- first on the Atari ST -I kind of need two lists...

Back in the day of the blue diskettes...

1. Space Quest 3

2. Future Wars

3. Zak McKraken

I think I played every ST port Sierra released; from Codename: ICEMAN to Leisure Suit Larry 3. Sierra, Delphine, and random french adventures made up the bulk of my ST adventuring; LucasArts quit the ST after Secret of Monkey Island, which I couldn't run because it needed 1 meg of ram, so only Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade were available. The three above stand out in my mind as being particularly special to me at the time.

"Current" me...

1. Grim Fandango

2. Day of the Tentacle

3. Gabriel Knight

Still fairly old games, I'll admit, but, for me, the commercial PnC game has been in a state of decay since 2000.

Having said all that, tomorrow I might pick completely different games. I'm not very good at these lists.

[densming]

My favorite 3:

1. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
I loved the voice acting and the storyline in this game.  There were many big names in this game.  Tim Curry and Leah Remini were great, not to mention Mark Hamill and Michael Dorn.  The dialog in the game was great too.  I've played it many times and I really felt drawn into the plot in this game.

2. The Secret of Monkey Island 2
Just a pure classic.  I still laugh when I play this game.  Guybrush rules!

3. King's Quest 6
This was the best in the King's Quest series by far.  This game was ahead of its time.  I can remember watching the introduction and thinking, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!  It's 3D! 

[Ghost]

Simon the Sorcerer I
Superb graphics, amazingly well-done animations. Lots of walking around, but I could
live with that.

Gabriel Knight- Sins of the Fathers
Oh, so dark, so cool. And, being german, so full of little references. Also possibly the
first game to bring my 386 33DX to its limits.

Kyrandia 2 Hand Of Fate
Always on my list. Puzzle-wise it wasn't outstanding, but the graphics and sheer joy in puns was awesome, and still is.

The Secret Of Monkey Island
Well, this is on everyone's list, isn't it? I loved the puzzles, btw, while hating Guybrush.

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
Not as good as it could've been, but still, impressive attempt at making a game from a darn good short story.

[Dualnames]

1. Monkey Island II: Le Chuck's Revenge
Darn do I hate myself for finishing this... every single day. Best adventure game experience ever!!

2. Discworld Noir:
Lewton's footnotes are just hilarious

3.Day of the Tentacle:
I played this for the first time in 2007. It took me 7 hours to beat and darn it was one of the best games ever. Of the few games, that solving puzzles was so rewarding and made me so happy, clearly proving that easy-medium puzzles based on logic will always beat HARDCORE ones.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

1.  Maniac Mansion, c64 edition.  Yeah, you can say that Sierra had the first 'adventure' game, but it was a crappy text based affair with terrible lineart, whereas Maniac Mansion was a visual feast to children everywhere when it was released.  It is also the very definition of an adventure game in my view, as it laid out and established nearly all the standards for games like it to follow -- and it was fun!

2.  The Legend of Kyrandia.  I remember being extremely impressed by the visuals of this game when I first played it on the Amiga.  It was far beyond the competition at the time in terms of colors and overall look, and the quirky story of an evil jester taking over a kingdom appealed to me.

3.  Quest for Glory 2.  While I'm fond of all of the Quest for Glory's (aside from the last), I remember this one best because I played it first on my Amiga.  The choice of classes, combat, and different abilities depending on how you played the game made this series stand out from everything else and established it as my single favorite adventure game series because it's so much more than a puzzlefest.

[Andorxor]

1. Kyrandia HOF
2. Death Gate
3. DOTT

[Ozzie]

Whoo!
I'm not alone in thinking that Death Gate is one of the greatest adventure games ever!
It has a wonderful atmosphere and 100% logical puzzles and is just great fun!

Second place must be Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The unusual high amount of interactivity impressed. It also felt very real and lively, not so static as most adventure games.

Third place......now that's tough. Probably DOTT. Or Gabriel Knight. I'm not sure. I admire those games, but they weren't as fun to me. So I'm undecided. 

[TerranRich]

There are still TONS of games I haven't played, but off the top of my head:

1. Quest for Glory IV - I don't know what it is, but I could play this one time and time again and never be bored. The atmosphere that this game created was just amazing. I played it recently again, and I noticed that the music was really good and fit a lot of the scenes and characters.

2. Broken Sword - I'd count the first two, but I never finished BS2 before my computer crashed a year or two ago. The first one was a unique experience with the hand-drawn cartoon-like graphics and interesting game play, characters, and backgrounds.

3. Monkey Island - The Insult Swordfighting made this game the most memorable. I still think it's an amazing system and a very innovative and original puzzle idea. I haven't had the chance to play the later games in the series, but I fully intend to.

I always would like to honorably mention the Runaway series of games, especially Runaway 2. The characters were very interesting and very real. I cheered when

Spoiler

Brian hooked up with the female bartender at the end of one of the chapters

[close]

All of the characters were amazing, with awesome voice acting and animation.

I, of course, also love the Space Quest series dearly. Those games would've been higher up on the list, but so many other games are better than them. However, I still hold a special place in my heart for the Space Quest games, especially Space Quest IV, which was one of the first adventure games I ever played. It was included on some collection of CD-ROMs that included King's Quest V, a few other games, and a ton of other applications. It didn't come with manuals, of course, so I had to resort to cheating to beat SQ4. And the trend has continued ever since.

[m0ds]

I'll keep it short.

1. Fate of Atlantis - it's epic, and very Indy
2. LBA2 - well, you didn't say "point & clicks", this is just all round beautiful & fun
3. The Dig - I've never been so gripped

Oh wait, the title suggests point and click, ergo; 1, FoA, 2, The Dig, 3, Teen Agent* (awesome slapstick)

* No longer commercial.

[markbilly]

1. Beneath a Steel Sky, though it's now freeware.
Loved the characters, the music, the atmosphere. The story was great and well executed, as well as witty. Also, though many people don't rave about the graphics, I loved them! They captured the setting perfectly, and the animation was amazing - typical Revolution.

2. Monkey Island 1
3. Broken Sword - amazing graphics (though oddly inconsistent at times), with trademark Revolution animation. And a great adventure game story.

[MRollins]

Mine would be:

1. Quest for Glory I
I'm surprised that so few posters have listed any of the Quest for Glory games. While I like them all (even Dragon Fire) the first one is my favorite. It had that classic fantasy setting (forest, small town, castle) but you could play as 1 of 3 classes. The multiple solutions to puzzles depending on your class was great and (aside from the candleabra puzzle in the Brigand camp) the whole game had a nice flow. Throw in great characters like Erasmus and Baba Yaga and you have a classic.

2. Secret of Monkey Island
This probably only comes in second because I played it after QG1 and the graphic style was a little less immersive. This game was and still is incredible...

3. Gabriel Knight
This game was great because of the story and the moral ambiguity of the central character. Probably the first game I ever played that I would have enjoyed without the great graphics.

[ManicMatt]

1. Monkey Island series
I can't name just one of them in preference! The humour is the best element of these games.
2. Day of the tentacle
Was too short, but so much fun! Plus I love time travel.
3. Sam n Max season 1
Mucking around and not solving puzzles is part of the fun!

[TerranRich]

1. Quest for Glory I
I'm surprised that so few posters have listed any of the Quest for Glory games. While I like them all (even Dragon Fire) the first one is my favorite. It had that classic fantasy setting (forest, small town, castle) but you could play as 1 of 3 classes. The multiple solutions to puzzles depending on your class was great and (aside from the candleabra puzzle in the Brigand camp) the whole game had a nice flow. Throw in great characters like Erasmus and Baba Yaga and you have a classic.

Heh, QfG IV has all that, plus very good voice acting and an eerie setting/mood. And yeah, I liked QFG V too, it was a good game.